The speculation has been around for a while that Apple would be ridding itself of the headphone jack, but no one thought it would actually happen. While I haven’t even come close to being the not-so proud owner of this new technology, I am already not a fan of these new earbuds (Lightning earbuds? AirPods? Headphones?) or the lack of a headphone jack. Instead of outlining my concerns in a lengthy article, I thought I should cut to the chase by making a pro/con list for wire headphones versus Apple’s newest creation.
First up, the good old fashioned wire headphones.
Pros:
- Most wire headphones don’t require to be charged, meaning you can use them to your heart’s desire, or until you blow the speakers on them (because we have all done it).
- There’s a wide variety of wire headphones to suite anyone’s musical needs, whether you love bass or want nothing to do with it.
- If you are on a budget, you can literally just go to the dollar store or your local drugstore to buy some cheap headphones.
- They save your phone from dropping onto the floor and shattering sometimes.
Cons:
- They can (and will) get extremely tangled if you just blink.
- The wire can get in the way sometimes.
And now for the topic of the hour – AirPods.
Pros:
- No more annoying wires to get in the way of your daily tasks.
- The quality of music is said to be improved from previous earbud designs, as expected.
Cons:
- You will need to buy a few extensions, which are a bit pricey, if you want to use your wire headphones with the iPhone 7 and/or use them while you charge your phone.
- The AirPods themselves cost a staggering $159.
- As you can guess from the above two points, you will likely have to spend more money whether you buy AirPods or not and, if you’re a loyal Apple customer like me, this does not sound ideal at all.
- Since it works wirelessly, there’s bound to be some connection issues at times. As someone who owns a stereo that works via Bluetooth, I can confidently say that there will be moments where your music is interrupted and lacks the quality that you payed for.
- Considering the design is exactly the same as Apple’s current wire headphone design, the wireless version is likely to fall out of your ears a lot.
- You have to charge them practically daily (assuming you listen to music all day), so if you forget to charge them and want to listen to music, your favorite song may be cut short.
- According to Lisa Eadicicco of Time Magazine, your music pauses once you remove one of the AirPods, which can be handy; however, it can obviously be a pain if you only want to listen to music with one in.
- When flying, some airlines don’t allow Bluetooth devices.
More adjustments and updates are bound to be made, as this is a fairly new design for Apple; however, for now, the majority of reviews have been negative and, as an Apple customer, I am not particularly looking forward to upgrading to a life of multiple adapters after my iPhone 6’s battery runs its course.
